For the first time in at least a
century, U.S.
fishermen won't take too much of any species from the sea, one of the nation's
top fishery scientists says.” This is
from an article written by Jay Lindsay for the Associated Press (link) and the
top fishery scientist is Steve Murawski, who retired early in 2011 as Director
of Scientific Programs and Chief Science Advisor at NOAA Fisheries. So why are
so-called “marine conservationists,” ENGOs, the handful of billion dollar
foundations that support them and the upper echelons at the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration in the U.S. Department of Commerce still
claiming that radical surgery is needed to “save” our fisheries? The answer to
that question is beyond me, and beyond anyone who’s likely to be looking at
this website.

However,
exploring the relationships – spelled out in dollars, generally a really lot of
dollars – might help to understand what’s really going on. Following the advice
that Deep Throat - Mark Felt - gave to Bob Woodward during his Watergate
investigation, it is an exercise in following the money. Hence this website.

The
heart of it is a database (link) in which I’ve listed the foundations
that have funded what most fishermen consider to be anti-fishing efforts, the
grants that they have made, the amounts of those grants and the recipients who
have benefited from them (note that not all of the listed grants are deleterious
to fishermen - just most of them). You can easily search the database by clicking
on the down arrow in the box, revealing a drop-down list of grantors,
grantees, etc. The information it contains is taken directly from
the foundation websites. Unfortunately the web access they provide to their
grant-giving activities extends back for varying amounts of time and the
search engines they provide appear to have limitations which make searches
somewhat unreliable. While not all of the listed grants might apply directly to
fishing, they almost certainly apply to the influence that the foundations
making them have on the recipients. (It is also available as an html file here.)

The
tabs on the “Connections” page that you can reach by clicking on the button
up above are linked to the people, the organizations and
the work products that the hundreds of millions of dollars of “investments” by
this small group of foundations have yielded. To get there, click on the button
above this paragraph. Even a cursory examination of the
connections they make will demonstrate that what has been sold as a massive
“scientific” movement is in fact controlled by these few very powerful, and if
the degree of human suffering they are responsible for is any indication, very
uncaring “charitable” institutions.

Just as it was important in the Watergate
investigations, following the money is also important in determining who is
doing what and why in fisheries management and where the impetus for a
management "revolution" is coming from. In order to help untangle what
seems to be an overly tangled web, I’m putting together information on the
mega-foundations behind the anti-fishing juggernaut and the individuals
and organizations that are most heavily involved.

The inclusion of individuals, organizations
or events here is not meant as an indictment of any sort. They are simply listed
because they are connected to hundreds of millions of dollars doled out by a
small handful of foundations, and the sum total of the effects of those millions
of dollars is the destruction of what since colonial times has been considered
an invaluable part of the heritage of our coastal communities: fishermen and
the businesses that depend on their fishing.

If you find any inaccuracies or have any
documented information that you think should be added here, please let me know
via email (click
here but you must delete the two
Zs from my address – thank the spammers and their web bots for
this added exercise). This is and this will remain a work in progress and will
only be as valuable as the information it contains. Also, if you have any
questions or comments, please feel free to contact me.

The full database is also available as a Microsoft Excel file by clicking here.